Backend for Frontend (BFF), I Ignored It… Until My System Forced Me

Ankit Singh — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 16:12:55 +0000

I'll be honest.

For a long time, I thought BFF is just another "system design buzzword".

Something people use in interviews to sound smart.

In real work?
Didn't feel needed.

Then system grew… and things started breaking in ways I didn't expect.

How It Actually Starts

At beginning, everything is simple:

Then product evolves:

Still same backend.

That's where slow problems start.

Single backend -> multiple frontends = compromise everywhere

Example API: /user/profile
Response:

{
  name,
  email,
  address,
  preferences,
  orderHistory,
  notifications,
  featureFlags
}

Reality:
Mobile → needs only name + notifications
Web → needs most of it
Admin → needs different subset

What we do?

Now frontend is doing backend work.
And code starts feeling heavy.

Not one backend for all.

[ Web ]    --> [ Web BFF ] 
[ Mobile ] --> [ Mobile BFF ] --> [ Core APIs ]
[ Admin ]  --> [ Admin BFF ]

Each frontend talks to it's own layer.

Simple idea, big impact.

After using BFF, few things became very clear.

BFF is useful, but not always.
Don't use it if:

You don't start with BFF.

You reach a point where:

It becomes obvious.

Curious how others are solving this - feel free to share your approach in the comments.